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August 13, 2020

Walking Prayer

Dear Friends,

Quarantines, social distancing, masks, lockdowns.

All of these actions slow down the spread of a deadly virus, but they also create barriers for ministry.  It might seem like we should just lower our expectations and wait for all this to pass. Yet we know the Father is always working and he can use every situation to advance his Kingdom. And as believers, we have spiritual weapons that slip through these Covid-generated walls and penetrate the social distance.

One of these weapons is prayer. When many of the JV summer camps were canceled in Slovenia, the team decided to take the spiritual battle directly into enemy strongholds. Four families set up tents in a campground near the darkest city in the country—a town with a strong Muslim population, drug abuse, occult activity, and no evangelical church.

Every morning at 9 a.m., they would begin to walk the city, praying for people and places they saw and asking God to open up conversations with people they met. Continuing without a break and without food until 6 p.m., they battled in prayer for the people of that city. The next day they continued for another nine hours, and then again for two more days, spending a total of 36 hours in intercessory prayer for this needy city.

God opened many conversations with people on the street and guided the team to specific individuals and locations. In spite of the darkness and a fearful pandemic, only a few refused to let them pray out loud for them. After they returned home, a group of young people was so inspired by their example that they decided to travel through the major cities of Slovenia for a week in September, fasting and praying for God to break through the spiritual darkness and bring his light. Prayer walking is penetrating barriers in Slovenia.

Prayer can also be “walking” when it is followed by concrete steps of obedience. In the Czech Republic, Dušan challenged his team to stretch their faith in personal evangelism this summer and ask God to give them specific names to intercede for. As he prayed, the Spirit brought to his mind Milan, a former co-worker from the company where he worked right after college.

Turning his prayer into “walking,” Dušan invited him out for coffee, and after reviewing the gospel with him, asked when he was going to put his trust in Christ. “How about right now?” Milan said.  Immediately, right there in a coffee shop, Milan was adopted into God’s family. He has already started attending church with Dušan, in spite of the fact that they both have to wear masks.

When Paul reflected on the limitations of his own chains in the book of 2 Timothy, he added, “But God’s word is not chained.”

Thank you for “prayer walking” together with us,

Dave Patty President

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